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I dislike editing. You write and write and write in order to reach that deadline and to express what you want to express and then when you do finish it you haven’t actually finished it! You have to re-read it and re-read it again and so by then your sick of your own words and want to throw it out the window. Maybe I’m over personalizing at the end there, but in any case I find editing my work takes more effort than actually writing the essay or article but it is one of the most important things to do.

If my experience is anything like yours and you wish to refine the art of editing in order to perfect your writing then I can recommend Dr Maureen-Helen’s workshop “Memoirs/Biography: Editing and Rewriting”. This workshop is for novice writers and for those who want to perfect their writing through editing, feedback and managing drafts. She will teach you a number of methods and approaches to help you get your writing and editing life on track.

For those who are unfamiliar with Dr Maureen-Helen she is an experienced writer, teacher and published author. Her memoir, Other People’s Country (ABC Books, 2008) was listed for a Walkey Award and short-listen for WA Premier’s Book Awards (SLWA WA History Prize). Her formal qualifications include a PhD in Writing.

The workshop goes from 1:30pm – 4:30pm on Sunday 12th July.

Please refer to the flyer for information on the workshop, how to apply and the cost for members and non members.

We all had a great time at the high tea celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Peter Cowan Writers Centre.

Highlights included a few words from the newly appointed ECU Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Chapman, the Head of the School of Communications and Arts at ECU Mt Lawley Professor Clive Barstow as well as Professor Glen Phillips. We also enjoyed listening to Liana Joy Christensen recite a poem she wrote during her time in the Advanced Poetry workshop here at PCWC and which is also published in the Homecoming coffee table book.

Thank-you to everyone who made this day possible.

Photos:

A few words from Professor Clive Barstow

Group under Marquee including Mayor of Wanneroo Tracey Roberts and Professor Glen Philips

It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition.
– Isaac Asimov

Dr Maureen-Helen is back at PCWC with a workshop to help kick-start your writing life. If there is a single part of you that wishes to write, whether that be professionally or simply as a hobby then this workshop might be right up your alley. You will learn about a number of proven techniques and approaches to help you tame that writing beast to your complete satisfaction.

The workshop will take place on 28th June 2015 at 1:30pm-4:30pm but registrations close on the 23rd of June at 5pm.

As the Greek Philosopher Epictetus once said “If you wish to be a writer; write!” and it’s this workshop that will help you achieve this simple advice.

Shane McCauley is back with another poetry workshop called Editing Your Poetry, which is about…editing your poetry!

If you went to Shane’s beginners poetry workshop, Introduction to Poetry, in March then this workshop is the other half of your poetry education.

Shane has made this workshop to be purely practical. So, applicants will be immersed in methods of how to shape a poem, what to include and exclude, how to utilize imagery to the best effect, how to incorporate sounds and rhythms in both traditional and free poetic forms. Applicants will also examine examples of the good and the not-so-good.

If you were not an applicant of Introduction to Poetry you may not be familiar with Shane’s work.

Shane McCauley has been a TAFE/University lecturer since the mid-1970s and seven of his books of poetry have been published, most recently The Drunken Elk (Sunline Press, 2010) and Ghost Catcher (Studio Press, 2012). He was awarded the 2008 Max Harris Poetry Award. So your poetry will be in good hands!

We have several places still available so the closing date for registrations to this workshop has been dropped for now to allow for any interested parties to apply at a time that’s appropriate for them. But make sure you get in soon because Editing Your Poetry will be taking place on the 30th of May. You may apply via phone, email or through our new online application process on our website!

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?” (1870)

To write a memorable poem one must first learn how to express emotion in their poetry that envelopes readers and audiences in the same way Emily Dickinson has so vividly described.

Jackson – facilitator of the workshop Writing Powerful Poetry – will help you achieve this. Her poetry has been published many times, she has a wealth of teaching, mentoring and poetry editing experience and in 2014 she won the Ethel Webb Bundell Poetry Award.

Her workshop will take place on Sunday the 17th May at the Peter Cowan Writers Centre and will cover the ways in which strong emotion can be transported through poetry as well as analyzing the ways in which famous poets construct mystery and magic.

To quote from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves” (1865)

… and was once the home of Edith Dircksey Cowan(1861 – 1932) OBE, a social campaigner, philanthropist, and the first woman elected to an Australian parliament.

The house was purchased by the university in 1991, taken apart, transported north (from its original location at 71 Malcolm Street, West Perth) and then rebuilt and relocated on the ECU campus in a park named Joondalup Pines…

While it was interesting to learn more about a woman whose portrait appears on the reverse side of the reverse side of every Australian fifty dollar note…

… my main reason for visiting was to check out the typewriter owned by her grandson, Peter…

… my main reason for visiting was to check out the typewriter owned by her grandson, Peter …

Born in Perth, Western Australia, Peter (Walkinshaw) Cowan (1914 – 2002) published five novels, eight volumes of short stories, and was a prolific essayist, biographer and literary critic.

Peter’s typewriter, writing desk and chair are on display in the Centre’s Library room.

Congratulations to PCWC Member, Elizabeth Brennan, author of A Different Shade of Seeing. This is a delightful combination of memoirs and philosophical reflections; an account of Elizabeth’s visit to her ancestral homeland of Ireland where history and folklore are discovered.